June 9, 2011

Today Brooklyn blog Fucked in Park Slope reports on an incident that occurred at what you’d imagine to be a perfectly respectable and generally rage-free (save the cutting of cuticles) zone: A nail salon on Fifth Avenue near Carroll Street. Specifically, H&L Nail Spa. And yet, there was rage. A lot of rage. According to FIPS reader MacKenzie Fegan, who was there during the “most violent nail salon encounter that you’re likely to hear about all day,” it all started when a teenage girl got a French pedicure (always a bad idea — ugly, plus, they cost more). She couldn’t pay the bill, which led to a call to her parents, her parents’ arrival at the salon, her father’s screaming in rage, everyone screaming back, and chairs being thrown.

Apparently, after the initial phone call for some cash, the girl’s dad blustered in, shouting,

“Who owns this place and where is my daughter?” His daughter happens to be sitting right next to him and calls out to him, clearly mortified. The guy goes, “Who told her to get this pedicure? Who made her get it?” and the daughter tries to explain that no one made her, she’s just a pre-teen who wants a French pedi, jeez. Then the mom barrels in, also large, also angry. “Who told her she couldn’t leave? That’s imprisonment!” Hm, also paying for goods/services rendered is kind of the cornerstone of a capitalist society, but I digress.

Then the good people of Park Slope got involved. After all, why can’t they have peace in a nail salon? Is it fair for their children be exposed to this sort of lowbrow emotional drama? One of them ventured to interject, and was yelled at. Chaos basically broke out completely, with racial slurs against “fucking Koreans” (Fegan points out that the salon is actually Chinese-owned and operated) from the dad/husband, who then, reports Fegan,

*picks up a chair* and throws it. Picks it up and throws it again. I’ve called the cops by this point, but by the time I explain what’s going on the family has already left — without paying — leaving overturned chairs and a room of stunned salon patrons in their wake. The lovely proprietress kept on apologizing to all of us, and we were all like, “No, lady, WE’RE sorry there are racist assholes with anger management issues terrorizing your salon.” So, I don’t know, if your readership wants to show their support for victims of aggro haters, they should head over to H&L for their next mani-pedi. Solidarity, Park Slope.

Okay, simmer down, everyone. It is waaaay too early in the summer for this kind of behavior. This is like late-August levels of batshit. C’mon! I blame it all on the French pedicure.